Session 6: My Church, My Lifeboat

Activity: Bumper Stickers
Bring in a few examples of bumper stickers. Discuss with students the types of phrases that people put on bumper stickers to express their opinions about something or to advertise something.

Say, “What are some phrases we could use to express the Church’s view about life? What are some phrases we could use to encourage people to be part of the Church.?”

Ahead of time cut out sheets of construction paper the size of bumperstickers. Make copies of various Orthodox clip art that would fit on a bumper sticker.

Using various materials (be creative) have students create bumper stickers about the Church. When they are done take them to your local office supply store and have them laminated. You may wish to create a parish calender out of them, or display them somewhere where everyone can see them.

Conclusion
Look at the plants/pet rock journals from the first session. See what condition they are in. Some will probably not have “made it.” Talk about what it was like to care for the plant/pet rock. [It was hard to remember to water/feed it, I wanted it to grow faster, I lost interest, I didn’t care, etc.] Ask if they needed help taking care of the plant/pet rock.

Say, “Just like sometimes we needed other people to help remind us to take care of our plant/pet rock, we need help to learn how to love. We also need to be reminded to love God and other people. That’s what the Church does. The icons, Bible, Church Services, priests, and all the other people in the Church are there to help us remember that our God is a loving God, who wants us to live our whole lives loving Him and all the other people He created.”

Unit Conclusion
Learn the song “A New Commandment” and have the students sing it after church services.

Noah and the Flood

After the death of Adam and Eve that part of the eart where their sons and grandchildren and great-grandchildren lived began to be full of people. As time went by more and more people in the world became wicked. God became angry at the people because they had completely forgotten about Him and were doing more and more terrible things. So God said, “I will take away all people from the earth that I have made, because they are evil.”

But even in thouse bad times, God saw one good man. His name was Noah. Noah tried to do live the way God wanted all people to live. God saud to Noah, “All the men and women on earth are to be destroyed, because they are all evil. But you and your family shall be saved, because you alone are trying to do right.”

Then God told Noah how he would save his life and the lives of his family. He was to build a very large boat: very long, very wide, and very deep. God told Noah to build this ark and to have it ready for the time when a great flood would come. God said, “I will bring a great flood of water on earth, to cover all the land and to drown all the people on the earth. You shall go into the ark with your wife, and your sons and their wives. And you shall take a pair of each kindof animal, and seven pairs of each of the clean animals that are needed by people, like sheep, goats, and oxen, so that there will be animals as well as people to live upon the eart after the flood has passed away. And you mist take in the ark food for yourself and your family, and for all the animals with you, enough food to last for a year, while the flood shall stay on earth.”

And Noah did what God told him to do. For one hundred and twenty years Noah and his sons were building the ark, while the wicked people around laughed at them for building a great ship where there waas no water for it to sail on.

Noah and his wife and their three sons with their wives went into the ark. The animals were brought into the ark and food for them all. The door of the ark was shut, so that no more people and no more animals could come in.

In a few days the rain began to fall, asit had never rained before. Rivers overflowed; the people left their houses and ran up to the hills, but soon the hills were covered, and all the people on the drowned. All the animals, even the birds were drowned. For forty days and forty nights the rain kept on falling until there was no breath of life remaining outside the ark.

After forty days the rain stopped, but the water stayed on earth for more than six months; and the ark floated ovr the water that covered the land. Then God sent a wind to blow over the waters and dry them up. The ark finally ceased to float and landed on a mountain called Mount Ararat.

Noah could not see what happened on the earth because the door was shut and the window was on the roof. When he felt that the ark was no longer moving, Noah opened the window and let loose a bird called a raven. The raven has strong wings and this raven flew around and round until it found a place to rest, and it did not come back to the ark.

Then Noah sent out a dove; but the dove could not find any place to rest, so it flew back to the ark. After a week Noah sent out the dove again. At evening the dove cam back with a fresh leaf in its bill. So Noah knew that the water had gone down and the trees began to grow again. After another week a dove was sent out again and it never came back. This was a sign that the land was becoming dry again. Noah then took off a part of the roof and looked out, and saw that there wa dry land all around the ark. Noah and his family came out of the ark and they let out all the animals.

The first thing that Noah did, when he came out of the ark, was to give thanks to God. He built an altar, and laid upon it an offering to the Lord, and the Lord was pleased with Noah’s offering. And God said, “I will not again destroy the earth on account of people. From this time no flood shall again cover the earth.”